


Silver Lining

by KedakaiOkami



Category: One Piece
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27729055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KedakaiOkami/pseuds/KedakaiOkami
Summary: AU One Piece fic.Ace has to move from Dadan's house where he grew up in the countryside and go to live with his grandfather closer to the city.  He's not happy about it, but the neighbours, one in particular, might just change his mind.If you're a homophobe then move on.  You won't like this, and your hate isn't welcome.
Relationships: Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco/Portgas D. Ace
Comments: 11
Kudos: 60





	Silver Lining

“You’re moving in with your grandfather.”

Ace scowled at the news Dadan had just given him. He might not always see eye to eye with her, but she was a much better parental figure than a man who was never home. Monkey D Garp was a commanding officer in the navy, so work kept him away from home for days, weeks, months even, at a time. Garp also liked to show his affection through punches to the head, insisting that it would help Ace grow up strong to make an excellent marine. A career that Ace had no interest in at all.

Garp’s house was miles away, closer to the city. Ace had grown up in the country and the city just didn’t appeal to him. He’d always had the freedom to wander and he would lose that at Garp’s even if it wasn’t actually in the city. Ace had never been, but he’d heard all about it from Luffy, Garp’s biological grandson and Ace’s adopted brother. The house was much bigger than Dadan’s, with a large garden. Luffy’s father had dropped him off there before leaving, and then Garp had taken Luffy to Dadan the next day. He didn’t have time to be watching children.

Luffy’s father had picked him up last week, leaving Ace alone with Dadan, who’d been forced to run an unofficial foster home. She’d been in trouble in her youth, and if it hadn’t been for Garp it would have been worse. Neither adult would tell Ace any more than that except that they became drinking buddies. Garp had taken Ace in because he respected the boy’s father and didn’t want to take any chances of Ace being stuck in an orphanage or winding up in a bad home. Ace didn’t know his biological parents, his mother died in childbirth and his father had passed away before that due to a terminal illness, which he hadn’t let stop him living his life until the very end.

There had been another boy, Sabo, who had been Ace’s friend since before Luffy joined them. But his parents had taken him back after a couple of years. They’d had some problems and it had been affecting Sabo, so they left him at Dadan’s house, paying her for his keep and the trouble. They had since worked out their problems and decided to restore their family. While Ace and Luffy had been family through Garp adopting Ace as his grandson, the three boys had sworn brotherhood and they’d still gotten to see Sabo, just not as often. His parents were seemingly trying to make up for lost time and taking him out on regular trips between schooling. So Luffy’s departure had left Ace feeling very lonely.

On top of that, Ace had been diagnosed with narcolepsy shortly after hitting puberty. While the sleep attacks and sleepwalking had been concerning, he’d had Sabo and Luffy to watch out for him. With them gone, Ace had admittedly had a few close calls. There were rivers and cliffs in the area, and now with winter there was ice to worry about too. Garp’s property was enclosed. If Ace wandered off in his sleep, he wouldn’t get far there. It was understandable that Dadan had reached this decision, but understanding didn’t mean Ace had to like it.

“I don’t want to stay with him. He’s hardly ever home, he’ll keep on about the stupid navy even more and I won’t be able to spend any time with Sabo at all.”

“You also won’t be in constant danger of wandering off a cliff or drowning,” Dadan pointed out. “I worry about you, Ace, but I can’t keep you indoors all the time, it’s unhealthy. I can’t watch you all the time because you need your space. And maybe Sabo’s parents will let him visit sometime. You’ll receive a better education in an actual school than you would here too. Nothing against Makino, she’s done her best, but she has a bar to run and can’t afford to be out here every day tutoring you.”

“Yay,” Ace cheered with as much sarcasm as he could project through his voice. “Social isolation, emotional neglect and then a building full of people I don’t know so they can witness me having sleep attacks, alienating me even further than simply being new. How can it possibly get any better?”

“Don’t be difficult, Ace. I know it’s a lot to take in, but it’s for the best.”

“No, yeah, I always wanted to uproot my whole life.”

“You’ll be happy about it later,” Dadan insisted. “You’ll have an opportunity to make more friends. It’ll be fun, you’ll see.” Ace rolled his eyes, unconvinced, but dropped the topic. It had already been decided so there was no point in arguing about it.

~*~

People got on and off the train at the various stops as it travelled towards the city. Most of the passengers were laden with luggage, but some were in good cheer for the holidays. New Year was coming and a few of them even celebrated Christmas before that. Ace didn’t share their enthusiasm and spent his time staring listlessly out of the window or dozing off. Ace’s stop was the end of the line, which meant more travelling for Ace because there was a closer stop along the way and they would essentially be doubling back. It had been planned that way so that Ace wouldn’t miss his stop if he fell asleep.

Dadan had even asked the staff to keep an eye out for Ace, requesting that if Ace was asleep, to wake him when they reached the station where he would be met not by his grandfather, but by the man’s neighbour, Edward Newgate. A man Ace had never met but was told he couldn’t miss because he was so tall. They’d originally booked the train to coincide with Garp’s day off, but something had come up at work so Garp called in a favour.

Ace lifted his head, blinking sleepily as someone shook his shoulder. “End of the line, kid,” the ticket inspector told him. Ace hummed a response as he collected his bags before stepping off of the train and onto the busy platform.

Despite sleeping on the train, Ace felt tired and, as other people bustled about in front of him, he hazily glanced over the tops of their heads searching for someone unusually tall. They had to be unusually tall, or there’d be no point in saying he’d know them by their height.

When Ace spotted the tallest man in the station he did a double take, blinking a couple of times in disbelief. He vaguely wondered for a moment if he was still sleeping. He’d been expecting someone lanky when height had been mentioned, but the man he’d spotted was muscular in proportion to his height. If it wasn’t for the other people walking around him and the fact that he had to duck under hanging signs, he might have just looked like a normal person being closer than he was. Ace had never seen someone so big before in his life, it was like something out of a story book.

The large man had an impressive white moustache shaped like a crescent moon and wore a coat so large that it had to be tailored for him specifically. The sea of people parted for him as he began to approach Ace, and it was then that Ace noticed the other two men with him. They were both normal sized. One wore his hair in an auburn pompadour and the other seemed to have some sort of blonde mohawk, which reminded Ace of a pineapple, and though unusual it seemed to suit him well. They both wore coats as well to combat the cold weather outside.

Ace double checked his bags, making sure he had everything, before he started to approach the group, meeting them halfway. “You must be Ace. I’m Edward Newgate, and these are two of my sons, Marco and Thatch.” Thatch was the one with the pompadour, he also had a goatee and a very friendly demeanour. Marco seemed very laid back, and being close enough to make out his features Ace privately noted that he found the blonde’s face attractive. 

It was the first time he’d met someone who he was attracted to in more than just recognising that they were attractive, but he’d known for a while that he was actually gay. The first time he’d spoken about it had been with Sabo and Luffy, during one of Sabo’s rare visits. Luffy hadn’t contributed much to the conversation on attractive people, being younger than the two teenagers, but when Ace had spoken of men Sabo had been surprised but accepting. He’d even taken an interest, asking Ace questions about it, some of which were probably a little inappropriate, but it was okay because he wasn’t meaning to be rude, wasn’t judging Ace, just curious, and it helped the older teen to speak about it to someone.

Ace gave a polite bow as he’d been taught by Makino, “Yes, I’m Ace. It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for meeting me here.”

“No need to be so formal, son. Let’s get you home,” the large man replied lightly. “You’ll be staying with us tonight and Garp will pick you up tomorrow morning. We’re right next door to your grandfather’s house, so you won’t have much more travelling to do.”

“We’ll help you with your luggage,” Thatch said as he took one of Ace’s larger bags from his shoulder and put it over his own.

“You don’t have to do that,” Ace commented to Thatch.

Marco took Ace’s suitcase from his hand while he was distracted. “No, but we want to yoi,” he said as he gained Ace’s attention. Ace found that he liked the blonde’s voice as well as his appearance and there was something about that vocal tic that was oddly appealing. “How was your journey?”

“Exhausting I’ll bet,” Thatch put in, “You look shattered.”

“Yeah, that about sums it up,” Ace agreed.

“So since you’re going to be staying, we should be friends,” Thatch decided as Edward Newgate began to lead the way outside.

“Before you ask, this is completely normal for him yoi,” Marco commented quietly to Ace, drawing out an amused grin from the freckled teen. The three of them followed the elder man out to the car which, while big, looked very small when he got in.

~*~

The Newgates didn’t live in a house. They lived in a mansion. Ace had never seen Sabo’s home, but he’d heard about it and imagined it to look something like the large building Edward Newgate had just pulled up to. The door opened and a boy who looked around Ace’s age with messy brown hair dashed out to meet them eagerly. “You really can sleep anywhere, huh?” Thatch commented to Ace as they got out of the car. “I’ve never seen someone have a sleep attack from narcolepsy before.”

Marco took the bag that Ace had still been carrying when Marco and Thatch took the others again, and handed it to the teen who’d just joined them. “Haruta, take this to the made up guest room for Ace yoi.”

“Okay,” the teen responded, doing as he was told.

“If you think you might be about to have another sleep attack, tell me right away,” Marco told Ace as they all headed indoors. “We don’t want you to have a fall.”

The outside of the mansion had Christmas lights around the door and windows, and a wreath on the front door itself but inside was far more festive. Ace had only seen Christmas decorations on TV as they didn’t celebrate it at Dadan’s. There were colourful paper chains and garlands hanging from the ceilings, tinsel along the tops of picture frames, cards hung on string lining the walls and shelves were lined with Christmas ornaments.

Ace looked around in awe, taking it all in as Edward Newgate and his sons removed their coats. He was a little out of it with tiredness, and so he was a little surprised when the elder man offered to take his coat. The house was as warm as it was festive, so there was no need for being bundled in layers. Ace thanked the man as he removed his coat and handed it to him. It briefly occurred to Ace that Marco had a nice body as well as face and voice, but he was too tired to focus any further on that fact.

Ace was shown to a guest bedroom, which would be his for the night, and left to get settled in and take a nap. The room had an en suite and after Thatch headed down to the kitchen Marco assured Ace that they’d wake him for dinner if he was sleeping. Having spent most of the car journey dozing off, Ace was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow and before Marco had even left the room. He wouldn’t realise until later that Marco had lingered long enough to cover him with a blanket before leaving the room.

~*~

Garp’s house wasn’t as big as the Newgates’, but it was definitely much bigger than Dadan’s. It was quieter as well as smaller, and not really decorated for the festive season either. There was a bare tree in the main room, which was already more than Ace was used to. As soon as he had time off from work, Garp insisted that Ace help to decorate the house. It didn’t take the teenager long to realise that his grandfather actually wanted to spend family time together and felt that having a western style Christmas would be the perfect way to do it.

At the Newgates’ house Ace had been told that despite not seeing his family often, Garp spent a lot of time bragging about his grandsons. Garp was good friends with his neighbours, so they’d heard a lot about him. So much so that a lot of them felt like they’d known Ace for years. Much to Ace’s surprise, there were a number of photos of him and of Luffy in frames on the walls and shelves of Garp’s house. The photos had clearly been taken at Dadan’s, but they were displayed in a manner that reinforced what Ace had heard about Garp’s bragging.

Ace tried to stay annoyed about the move, after all he could no longer spend any time with Sabo, but Garp wasn’t pushing for Ace to join the navy and Ace got on rather well with the neighbours. Even if one of them, who Ace had first thought was a geisha but turned out to be a man, had realised he was attracted to Marco. The okama, Izo, took great delight in learning that Ace was gay and interested in Marco, and made a point to start asking the blonde a lot of questions, like if he had a boyfriend yet, and if so why he hadn’t introduced them to his family.

While it was satisfying to know that Marco wasn’t disgusted by gays, Ace had no clue if Marco was interested in men himself or not. He didn’t take much of Izo’s baiting, skillfully steering the conversation in a different direction instead. Ace tried not to think about Marco’s sexuality, settling for admiring from afar, but it was hard to do when the dreams started. Dreams of Marco kissing him, of touching him. There was disappointment when he awoke, because he wanted it and more, but the dreams made it difficult to face the blonde.

Despite the holidays and his attempts to spend time with Ace, Garp was still kept busy with work. Ace would go for hours being bored and alone, to having Garp practically lavish attention on him. The man still gave his “fists of love,” much to Ace’s chagrin, but he’d come home from long stints laden with takeout, snacks and the odd gift for Ace by way of apology. He even chose gifts that would help occupy Ace’s time when he was alone, such as movies, video games and even colouring books and pencils. Ace wasn’t really all that confident in drawing pictures, but he loved to colour, and Garp apparently knew that despite his constant absence.

The old man had also asked their neighbours to watch out for Ace while he was away, so that Ace wouldn’t be completely alone for too long. If Ace wasn’t over with the Newgates, at least one of them would be checking in on him. They’d started coming over earlier in the day to check on Ace and make sure he’d remembered to take his medication after Marco had found him at the bottom of the stairs, having fallen asleep on his way down them.

Fortunately Ace hadn’t been seriously hurt, just a few bumps and bruises, but it had worried Marco enough to first ensure Ace hadn’t broken anything and then move him back to his room and sit with him for hours to make sure there were no problems following a concussion. He’d actually ended up spending the whole day with Ace until Garp got home. Marco had turned out to be quite an accomplished artist and had drawn pictures for Ace to colour in while they sat together, so Ace had been too occupied to grow bored or freak out about spending time alone in his room with his crush.

It shouldn't really have come as a surprise to be invited to the Christmas party that Edward Newgate was hosting. Ace just hadn’t really thought about it because Christmas had never been a big deal for him. New Year on the other hand, Dadan made a big deal about that, especially since it was Ace’s birthday too. So Ace found himself heading up the Newgates’ drive with Garp on Christmas Eve.

The mansion always seemed lively, and with so many occupants that wasn’t really surprising, but it seemed even more so with a party in full swing. Izo was the one to answer the door, and after letting them both in and taking their coats, he caught Ace’s arm with the appearance of merely being happy and excited to speak to him again. Garp went ahead and Izo dropped the chirpiness to an all business demeanour.

“We both know how you feel about Marco,” the okama stated, getting straight to the point, “And you’re in luck because Marco likes you too, Thatch and I managed to wheedle it out of him. However, you’ve been a dumbass about it all and Marco thinks you’re intimidated by him because you won’t hold eye contact for long.” Ace opened his mouth to respond but Izo held his hand up to silence him. “I know, you’re worried that you’ll make a fool of yourself and he’ll think you’re uncool. Don’t worry, I’m going to help you.”

“You’re going to meddle you mean.”

“Here’s what we’re going to do; Thatch, Haruta and I have hung mistletoe in several locations throughout the house.”

“Mistletoe?”

“Yes, mistletoe. It's one of those western Christmas traditions.”

“This is technically my first Christmas, you’ll have to explain.”

“I can understand that,” Izo replied. “I learned about it growing up in this family. I’d never celebrated Christmas before I was adopted. Basically if you’re both under the mistletoe you have to kiss. So that’s the plan, to make sure you and Marco meet under the mistletoe. Then it’s up to you to make sure he knows how much you want it. First attempt will be coming up now. Marco’s going to wonder what’s keeping you and come to check any minute. There’s some in that doorway, so get going.”

“You really think this is going to work?” Ace asked dubiously.

“Go, go,” Izo insisted, pushing Ace towards the door, only to have him smack into Marco as the blonde left the main room sooner than the okama wanted. Izo cursed under his breath that Ace had to question everything instead of just doing as he was told while Marco made sure Ace was okay.

“Izo, be careful yoi. You could have hurt Ace.”

“I’m sorry, I guess I’m just a little excited for him. It’s his first Christmas you know. I didn’t want him to miss anything from speaking to me here. Go enjoy yourselves, I’ll go take care of these,” Izo excused himself and went to hang up Ace and Garp’s coats.

Marco shook his head a little in exasperation at his brother and turned back to Ace. “You never told us you didn’t celebrate Christmas any of times we were discussing it,” he commented and suddenly looked worried, “Is it something that makes you uncomfortable yoi?”

“No, it’s just that Dadan had never celebrated Christmas anyway, she celebrates New Year and that’s...well it’d be a bit much doing both.”

“You were about to say something else,” Marco commented. “You know you can tell me anything? I won’t judge you, and if you need help then I’ll do what I can.”

“Oh, no, it’s nothing to worry about. Just that New Year had always been when we partied. Gramps is just using Christmas to make up for lost time.”

“Well, the guest room is set up for you in case you need to take a nap. So don’t worry if it’s getting to be too much for you.” Ace felt his cheeks beginning to burn, but keeping Izo’s words in mind he refused to look away, except to bow as he thanked Marco. “Did you remember to take your medication today?” Marco asked, knowing that Ace had a bad habit of forgetting to take it. Especially as he spent his mornings still half asleep almost on autopilot when he had his coffee and breakfast.

“Uhh, I think so?” Ace responded in uncertainty.

Marco smiled in amusement, guessing it was probably a no. “I’ll keep an eye on you,” he said and put a hand to Ace’s back as a physical reinforcement to his statement, bringing Ace through to the main room.

“Oh!!” Thatch shouted the moment they were in the doorway, “Look who’s under the mistletoe! Marco and Ace you have to kiss. Those are the rules!”

“Ace doesn’t have to do anythi-” Marco began, clearly not wanting Ace to feel uncomfortable but getting cut off as Ace gathered his courage and caught Marco’s shirt, pulling him in for a kiss and watching his reaction. Marco’s eyes were wide open in shock for a moment, but he closed them and focussed on enjoying the kiss as the shock wore off. Relieved that there would be no repercussions for his action, at least no bad ones, Ace closed his eyes too. Neither of them paid any attention to the wolf whistles coming from Marco’s brothers, absorbed in their own world. Neither of them could tell who had deepened the kiss or at what point, and parted to catch their breath.

“I told you he liked you too,” Izo commented behind them, though neither knew which of them he was speaking to. It might have been both, but all Ace was focussed on was how glad he was now that Dadan had sent him to live with his grandfather.


End file.
